State of the art computer and communications systems require an efficient data transmission of high speed over short or longer distance. Optical data transmission is preferred in many cases where high speed data transfer and/or data transmission over longer distances are needed. more specifically, optoelectronic receivers for baseband digital optoelectronic data links are required in many applications where high speed optical data links are used.
Traditionally, the architecture of optoelectronic receivers is optimized for operation at a given bit rate and the bandwidth is hard wired. Further, prior art optoelectronic receiver architectures are single ended and do not use a differential architecture. Consequently, extrinsic and intrinsic noise may affect circuit operation and performance.
Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to provide new receiver architectures for base band digital optoelectronic data links which overcome these problems.
It is a purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved architecture for a digital optoelectronic receiver.
It is another purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved architecture for a digital optoelectronic receiver for base band digital optoelectronic data links.
It is still another purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved architecture for a digital optoelectronic receiver where the bandwidth of said receiver is automatically optimized in spite of the bit rate of the signal being unknown.
It is yet another purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved architecture for a digital optoelectronic receiver wherein said receiver uses the smallest possible bandwidth for whatever bit rate the circuit is operated at.
It is a further purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved architecture for a digital optoelectronic receiver having an improved noise immunity.
It is still a further purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved architecture for a digital optoelectronic receiver wherein said receiver uses a balanced differential circuit topology.
It is yet a further purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved architecture for a digital optoelectronic receiver wherein the use of overlapping execution allows for the use of a relatively slow decision circuit.
It is still a further purpose of the present invention to provide a new and improved architecture for a digital optoelectronic receiver which is relatively easy to fabricate and use.